KEY POINTS:
Eric Hillerton admits the idea of New Zealand farmers producing extra milk overseas to help industry growth - without increasing pressure on the local environment - may be difficult for Kiwis to swallow.
But the floating of the idea during an interview indicates how the Scotsman believes the industry needs to start thinking outside the square more to achieve its goals.
Hillerton's recent appointment as research general manager at key industry organisation Dexcel puts him in the middle of the internationally recognised dairy research expertise in Hamilton.
Providers in the city took in more than 70 per cent - some $19.6 million - of the dairy research money allotted by farmer-funded Dairy InSight last year. Besides Dexcel, AgResearch, LIC, Waikato University and Innovation Waikato are all significant contributors to dairy sector research.
The importance of Dexcel's role is part of what gives Hillerton a buzz in his job. With dairy products being our single biggest category of exports, the success of the research projects under way - and those to come - is crucial to the wider health of the economy.
The dairy industry is reviewing farmer-levy-funded R&D after a failure to achieve targeted productivity gains.
Hillerton said one way to grow New Zealand dairying without damaging the environment would be to do more farming overseas.
However, he believed he would have a major problem if he told local farmers he wanted to use their money to do research on setting up in, say, China. "They would not be amused I was spending dairy-industry-good money on that at present."
Hillerton said new ways of doing things were needed for the sector to prosper. "We've got to have a longer-term dimension to what we do."
He said dairy companies were crying out for more New Zealand-sourced milk, with Fonterra already having established sources of overseas supply.
There was now a drive to get more high-tech equipment into the "very low-technology" New Zealand industry to help meet the desire for more local product.
Getting labour to do the milking required for this production boost was a challenge. Dexcel has been experimenting with pasture-based robotic milking systems at a Hamilton farm - cows voluntarily come through a gate, stand on a pad and are milked automatically. It is unique here but such technology is used widely overseas in indoor milking environments.
Currently, automated milking is not economic in New Zealand but Hillerton said Dexcel was negotiating to use the latest international technology to help close the "gap" between the cost of applying the system here and getting an economic return. "There comes a time when that economic distance will not be a gap - it'll be an overlap," he said.
Key areas of research attention were boosting the output of cows by feeding them the best mix of grass and plants, and growing more feed in an environmentally sensitive way. "Yes, we can grow more but we need to grow more by natural processes - not by chemistry, by buying fertiliser and nitrogens - or if we have to do that we have to do it in a sustainable way."
He said that taking too much of a short-term view could hold the industry back. Those who funded research tended to want to see a quick benefit from it but longer-term research strategies were needed. "Answers don't grow on trees - you can't just go and say, 'oh, here's the answer'."
Noting that four out of nine people at a recent Dexcel meeting would retire in a few years, Hillerton said the need for more researchers was crucial.
Dairy research
* Dairy products are our biggest single category of merchandise exports - it is estimated they were worth $5.8 billion in the year to June, or 18.8 per cent of the total.
* Research plays a key role in helping ensure the sector can continue to grow in an environmentally sustainable way - farmers pay research levies to Dairy InSight.
* Of just under $28 million in national Dairy InSight research funding last year, more than 70 per cent was spent by Hamilton-based providers.
